Year 6 SATS - how important are they?

[TheGriffle]

My dd is in Year 6 and is sitting her first SATS exams this year, we were in lockdown during the Year 2 exams so we have no experience and have no idea what to expect. I have told dd that these are tests to see how well the teachers/school are performing, not a test on her ability as she is quite anxious. Is this right?

She’s been in intervention groups for her maths since covid so already feels that she’s not going to do well.

One other issue is that my parents have booked for us to go away for a family weekend which happens to be the weekend before the SATS start. We will be going as my parents have spent a lot of money but should we be making dd ‘revise’ while we’re there or is it ok to let her forget about it all and have a relaxing weekend?

Absolutely do not make her revise the weekend before. Tbh they mean naff all. My two boys year 8&7 now one did great and the other didn't do the best but it didn't mean nothing.

They are a test of your daughter not the school, so what you are saying isn’t true but is a good thing to say to reduce anxiety.

I think some secondary schools use it o set their learners into ability groups

They may be used to give the children GCSE targets and for initial setting. Butsets and targets can change.

Dts are in y8. As far as I can tell the SATS meant nothing. In fact I can't even remember what they got, we didn't get numbered scores like some parents here seemed
To have done. There was certainly no revision.

Even if they use them to set at secondary they can always reset if necessary.

If you want to help her, go online, download the past papers on the Goverment website and work through them with her. You will soon see which areas of Maths she struggles with. Everyone has to do Maths and English GCSEs so if you want to get her confidence up, help her with the specific areas she struggles with. She will be much better placed for GCSEs if you plug the gaps this year.

Teaching her how to study for exams is a good idea as its an essential skill but definitely no revision on the weekend before when you're away - she should be able to relax and enjoy the weekend. Do little bits of studying over a long period of time, that'll help her more and hopefully increase her confidence with maths.

It's just a review to see where your kid is at with their learning. It should highlight if they need support in certain areas.

They are a test of your DD, but also on how well the school are teaching.

Learning exam technique will be good for more frequent lower stakes testing in secondary school. e.g. Not to panic, to move on from questions they can't do, spreading time appropriately.

Getting to the 100 level shows they have grasped the core basics of primary school and should be able to achieve at secondary.

Some, but not all, schools use the SATs for initial setting (more likely in maths). But they also use CATs, and their own internal assessments, and adjust anyway, as they know different schools prep differently.

Some schools may do progress reporting based on flightpaths based on incoming SATs so over or under achieving at SATs sets them on the 'wrong' track.

However all schools are measured with Progress8/Attainment8 at GCSE level. The baseline for this is the incoming SATs. This means that some schools may target pupils for interventions based on progress since SATs, again under/over performing can impact this.

My overall take is: you want to be ready for secondary so y6 is important to consolidate skills and learn test taking, and it will be nice to show what you can do in the SATs, but in the end nothing is actually dependent on them.

We were told they are to see which " set" they would be put into when they go to high school.
Not sure if they have different level sets now.
Because all my Grandsons are being home educated.
Well eldest is now at University after being home educated.

Any decent school will adjust sets as needed.

(And if your secondary school isn't decent you have more to worry about than SATs.)

Most schools will be doing SATs presentation in school. There is absolutely no need to be revising the weekend before and your dd will do much better relaxing and enjoying her weekend away.

At my DS's school there was no expectation of revision out of school and the weekend before we were just told to make sure they relax and get an early night on the Sunday. The school generally does well in SATs so it seems to work. If your dd is struggling with maths it might be worth talking to the teacher if there is something you can do to support her?

Former y6 teacher view:
I would encourage her to continue to do her best and support with any homework.
They are used to set and work out targets so are not unimportant.

However there is no need for additional work nor should she revise the weekend before if you are going away.

This is coming from a family of primary and secondary teachers, totally unimportant for your DD, it's for the school. Secondary school will reassess all students for themselves once they have settled and will review them regularly in year 7 and onwards. Just keep her calm, it's just some questions and she can only try her best so enjoy the weekend. Plenty of years to get exam practice when the time comes.

Definitely don’t do any revision out of school hours. If the material can’t be taught and learnt during the school day, that’s the teachers problem. If she is moving onto a decent school, they will do their own assessment as to where she is up to.

Please don't do this!! Most year 6 teachers use past papers as preparation and it will screw up their plans if your child has already done all the papers😂

Totally agree with this. Effectively, you should just ignore them. DS1 didn't do them at all because of Covid, didn't make a jot of difference to him. Secondaries do their own assessments (CAT tests etc) in Yr7 to help with setting/targets etc. and any decent school should be flexible about sets anyway.

SATs test the school. As it happens DS1 was struggling throughout primary because of a lack of SEN suppport but is flying in secondary. If he had done SATs the results would have been totally unrepresentative of his ability but may have flagged their poor teaching, who knows.

DS2 is doing them this year, we are downplaying it massively at home, just not worth the fuss.

In our state primary, most people (75 per cent) prepared for grammar or Sats to end up in top streams at comp. Result years later is Russell group unis. They also helped their DC with GCSEs and getting work experience. Just saying.

Totally not important in my opinion. Many secondary schools do their own tests to set children on ability.

The claim is that they assess how well a school or group of teachers is doing but this is nonsense in my opinion - for example, in the area I live 90% of pupils have tutors for the 11 plus - so if you have children being tutored how can you know the results of the SATs is the as a consequence of what the school is doing or the tutoring that has taken place etc.

Personally I think they should be abolish but that's whole other thread. My year 10 dc did not do them, due to COVID and so far that year group has been fine!

Hope you and your child can enjoy year 6!

Flip side is that they are simply not necessary to achieve any of those things.

My DS who was a school refuser didn't do SATs and didn't end up going to highschool either, still got decent GCSEs and is flying in 6th form, was interviewed but unsuccessful for Oxford, but has been offered a place at UCL (Russell group 9th university in world according to rankings). Of course SATS can be an indicator but private schools don't even do them!

Sats are about as unimportant as a test can be for anyone other than the school. They also, by the nature of the testing, discriminate against SEN children, particularly dyslexic children.

OP don't worry about the SATS highschools will stream the kids if they are put in the wrong sets. There are plenty of exams to get stressed over when they get older which are significant.

The senior school deputy head said to me 'I don't know why they still do these because we don't use the results' ... my child is ND and stresses him enormously so we didn't bother revising at all - told him not to worry and do what he could

It doesn’t matter. If she’s getting to the point where she’s getting the same questions correct twice, then she’s got nothing to worry about. In my experience (primary school teacher) most children do not recognise similar questions. It’s all good practice.

@TheGriffle Year Six teacher here.

SATs are used to assess the effectiveness of the Primary School’s teaching.

They are also used to set expectations/predictions for GCSE. For example, if a DC gets 119 out of 120 in Maths, they should be aiming for a 7 or 8 at GCSE.

So what’s important is that their SATs result should reflect their actual ability - not tutored beyond their understanding, but also not doing tests the morning after a very late night with no breakfast!

As PP have said, all DC will have to take (and resit) Maths and English at GCSE, so it’s worth going through some past papers or CGP books to identify any gaps and boost their confidence. Several of my class went abroad for the 2nd lockdown, did not access our online learning and have been playing catchup ever since.

Arriving in Year 7 with confidence in Maths and English helps the whole transition period.

No your DD should not be worried about SATs nor should she be doing extra revision set by you. It will unnecessarily create tension. Just tell her to approach it like any other piece of work in school.

No don't go over old test papers. It's unnecessary and it can cause problems for use in school. It's really important for staff to be able to see not only which areas a child needs to work on but also how they went wrong. That's difficult to do if a paper is completed and reviewed elsewhere.

SAT results are used through secondary school but not necessarily for setting or class allocation. Many schools use their own assessment tests or move children around as they assess class work etc.

They are used to set targets for GCSE which the secondary schools have to justify if a child isn't making this target.

Now, if your child performs at a similar level all through school, the results from SATs will have little impact. However, if for some reason their attainment starts to slip from that predicted target, they may get extra help to achieve it.

Tbh the tests themselves aren't really the issue. It's the fact that the data is published and used to beat schools with is the problem.

For my ds, completely irrelevant.

He was bored with all the revision in year 6 and it rather put him off school. In the end he got 114,113,113.

He was going to a senior school out of area so they gave me the file to hand to the new school. I never did hand it over. I let the new school do their own assessment.